1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure generally relates to an apparatus and method for setting the operation of an antenna system and more particularly to allowing a configuration of the operation of one or more antennas in a device and/or system, such as a gateway device or other network device.
2. Background Information
This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art, which may be related to the present embodiments that are described below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light.
Communications devices used in the home, such as modems and residential gateways, provide users with a means to connect computing devices to the internet or other wide area networks. These communications devices further provide interfaces, including wired and/or wireless interfaces, to a home or local area network in order to communicate with other home devices, such as computers, tablets, set top boxes, internet enabled appliances, and the like. Many currently available communications devices also provide a number of operational features to enhance the wide array of possible applications. These devices often have a user interface and controls to permit its user to modify its settings during use in the various applications. For example, devices that operate as gateways may provide users with a remote handset to modify settings and run gateway applications. Alternatively, gateway settings can be modified through a web browser accessed through the gateway or through a separate device. The gateway applications may also mimic functions that can be performed through a browser.
Many of the home communications devices interface to an external network, such as a cable or digital subscriber line (DSL) network through a modem transceiver. Modern cable modem transceivers provide internet access and voice services to customers over the cable television network. These communications devices permit the connection of consumer premises equipment (CPE), such as personal computers and voice over internet protocol (VOIP) handsets, to the external network. These communications devices also often employ one or more local area network wireless transmit/receive circuits. These circuits typically include tuners, transmitters, demodulators, and modulators used to transmit and receive the data signal over the wireless system using a particular signaling protocol. Further these systems also may employ multiple antennas. Many home devices (e.g., home computers, tablets, and the like) may also include similar circuits and further permit use of multiple antennas.
However, these communications devices often do not permit some features or controls to be individually configurable for various operating conditions. For instance, transmit/receive circuits may employ multiple antennas operating in a manner that assumes that all antennas are required to operate for all communications. Operation may be limited to any or all antennas operating automatically in transmit and/or receive mode with any and/or all home network or client devices. In many cases, this automatic operation may not be optimal for wireless communications performance between a communications device and another home device. Further, it is not always possible to determine and configure specific antenna operating parameters, as an alternative to, or in addition to, any automatic transmission configuration in a communication device. These alternative or additional configurations may be based on certain parameters, such as specific device communications transactions. As a result, there is a need for configuring transmission and reception operation such that an antenna system on a network communication device may be statically configured to operate and transact with another network communication device. The present embodiments described herein address these and/or other issues.